Fancy growing your own Christmas dinner potatoes? Let's do it!
After the excitement of harvesting our Spring planted potatoes we’ve decided to grow our own Christmas potatoes. It’s going to be a test for us this year but we’re hoping it will be a success and will start a new tradition.
Wanna join us?
We’re keen for others to do the test with us? Are you game?
Potatoes take approximately three months from planting to harvest so now is the perfect time to plant them. Ours went in last Thursday, so we’ve only got a bit of a head start (not enough to make any difference really) and it’s not a competition, it’s more a bit of fun to get people growing and sharing the growing experience.
Ready to take part?
What you need:
· 34cm diameter growing bags x2 filled half full with multipurpose compost.
· Seed potatoes. 3 per bag. First and second early varieties such as Maris Peer, Charlotte and Nicola are good options - this year we’ve gone for ‘Nicola’ which are a high-yielding new potatoes that are great for boiling. 10-12 tubers are only £4.99.
What to do:
· Place your 3 seed potatoes equidistant apart (kind of in a triangle), cover with a little soil and add some water to get them going. Unlike Spring planted potatoes they don’t need to be chitted, as they’ll be going straight into warm soil.
Ongoing care
· Place the growing bags in a sunny position and make sure they get a lot of water – between 1-2 inches of water a week. We tend to water them every day unless it rains.
· As the foliage grows, add more compost until the bag is almost full. This gives the potatoes more room to grow, as well as supporting the growing plants.
· Potatoes don’t like frost, so you might need to take the bags inside or into a greenhouse if you can.
Are you going to join the Christmas Potato Challenge? I hope so.
Please reply below and tag me in your photos on instagram and if you need some more inspiration please check out my blog on how to grow potatoes in bags in 5 easy steps.
Can't wait for Christmas dinner now!
Happy growing!
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